When I went to Plaza Italia/Dignidad to demomstrate last Monday, I came a bit too early, so there weren’t that many people out. If I had come later, my mom would be at sleep already,




When I went to Plaza Italia/Dignidad to demomstrate last Monday, I came a bit too early, so there weren’t that many people out. If I had come later, my mom would be at sleep already, and not getting her present 🙂

So today, I decided to check out the demonstrations for realz. It’s also a Friday, which always makes for demonstration per Greta. Now, it seems like Fridays for Future is a bit lost in the overall demonstrations, but for the last event I found, it was actually Plaza Italia/Dignidad at 18, so here I come!

As I entered the area, the stench of tear gas got more or less alarming. Lots of people sat on the grass selling beer, clothes with political slogans, and cloth for your faces. I didn’t buy anything, as I thought it’d be better to be a 100% Swedish tourist if arrested.

It’s harder to protect yourself from getting shot though. But the statistics of it made it feel like a super-tiny risk to take.

Looking at the police car above, you get the feeling that the game between government and demonstrators is an exercise in endurance. Who can stand the longest? Well, one side has tens of millions of tax payers, and the other has their own little bodies.

A bit of a background:
It all started when the subway fares were raised. They don’t seem too bad for me (about one euro), but the minimum wage is less than 400 €, and a lot of people live down there, so you could say that the fare was like 4 euro per ride to compare.
That led kids to start going for free, and they even took control of the Baquedano station (where the demonstrations are). And then people in general supported them, and in anger of all kinds of privatizations and right-wing policies, Santiago got huge demonstrations with at most over a million demonstrators. The military has killed around 20 demonstrators.
Now, this has led the government to backtrack a bit, and they have promised higher pensions etc. Most of all, they have promised to in cooperation with the opposition, start making a new constitution.

Most people seem to be content with this, but demonstrations are still going on every single day, with at least a few thousand demonstrators.

Do you see the ground in the photo above? It’s destroyed in order to get stones to throw at the police.











The area has streets away in four directions. I came from the East today, and left to the South. This is in the very middle of the demonstration, and it feels kind of relaxed in here, as there are no police.







On the road to the south, the police are not on the main way like the east and west, but instead standing inside this little street. I don’t know if it was planned, but the sunlight is extreme from there, it’s hard to see them.

But you can always go there and throw some stones. Maybe with a shield like this guy.


Most people don’t care about this anymore, and would like to sell the idea that most demonstrators are “young, angry men”. But there were tons of women and older people. Here’s a guy relaxing by the fire.

This fire truck is not coming for this fire, but is going to the burning bus.












People making rhythmic noise by banging on the metal with stones. Rabam, rabam, rabamrabam, rabamrabamrabam, bambambambam






Now, I don’t support the demonstrations per se, as they are right now, with throwing stones at the police and burning buses etc day in and day out. And most people in Santiago don’t either, is my impression.
But this is the “natural” result of too right-wing policies. This is bringing Chile down. The constitution talks will take several years. Investors don’t get the stability they need to invest lots of money. If looking for a place for your South American office, you might place it in Montevideo instead, a nice, calm city in a more calmly leftist country with free education, health care etc. Where people could relax with a joint instead of a whisky on Friday nights if they feel like, without giving money to a mafia.

Then we had to celebrate with some board games! This is Point Salad. I got the second most points. The winner is on my left, not in the picture.

This is Saboteur. I got the second most points. The winner is on my left, not in the picture. (Same guy as in the game above.)

Here’s a game packed with numbers. I forgot it’s name. I got the most points! Only that you’re supposed to not get any points :/ The winner was Rosario! She claimed that her ignorance of mathematics was the key.

Here’s Rising Sun, a nice game with a slightly pasted on Japanese theme.



We didn’t play it though, but played Cards Against Humanity. I won. Which means that I’m a horrible person.

Good night!